Douglass Center Announces 2025-26 Public Engagement Fellows

Projects led by ARHU faculty and graduate students address issues of migration, community building and climate action

The Frederick Douglass Center for Leadership Through the Humanities has selected its cohort of 2025-26 public engagement fellows, made up of faculty and graduate students from the College of Arts and Humanities. Public Engagement Fellows receive $5,000 to support projects that align with the mission of the Douglass Center to cultivate leadership among students, faculty, staff, and the general public with core values rooted in the humanities to advance a more just society.
 

Applications open each spring.
 

The second cohort of fellows includes: 
 

Faculty Fellows

Ana Patricia Rodríguez, associate professor of U.S. Latina/o/x and Central American literatures

Cross-cultural Literacies in College Park: The “Learning Together / Aprendiendo Juntos” After-School Program at Hollywood Elementary School

Rodriguez, who participates in several community- engaged projects with local immigrant communities in the Washington, D.C., region, will expand her Learning Together / Aprendiendo Juntos project that brings together UMD undergraduates with preK-5th grade students in an after-school program at Hollywood Elementary School in College Park. In her “Spanish in the Community” course, UMD students learn pedagogical methods to teach basic English to Spanish-speaking parents and develop culturally responsive learning activities for the preK-5 children. The work fulfills the course’s service learning requirement and provides a unique opportunity to learn valuable lessons across cultural differences. With this public engagement fellowship, Rodriguez seeks to expand the program to other local schools which would benefit from cross-cultural programs.
 

Alireza Vaziri, assistant professor of art

“Home Far From Home”: Exploring Migration, Resilience and Identity Through the Iranian Immigrant Experience

Vaziri is a multidisciplinary designer, educator and visual storyteller whose work sits at the intersection of design, technology and social change. His project Home Far From Home integrates photography, graphic design and illustration to explore migration, resilience and identity through the lived experiences of Iranian immigrants in the United States. Created in collaboration with award-winning photographer Hossein Fatemi, whose decade-long documentation spans more than 30 U.S. states, the project will culminate in a curated photo book and exhibition. 
 

Graduate Student Fellows

Marjorie Justine Antonio, master’s student in history and library and information science

“Keeping Ourselves Safe”: Transnational Filipino Arts Activism and Community Archiving in the Dual-Surveillance State

Antonio’s project seeks to advance efforts to document and archive the grassroots organizing activities of Filipino community organizations working for a genuinely free and democratic Philippines, and the broad movement for Filipino migrant justice. “Keeping Ourselves Safe” explores how Filipino activists carry out cultural work through media documentation and community archiving practice. A workshop for community organizations will provide guidance and enable coordination for the creation of a virtual archive. 
 

Leela Chantrelle, doctoral candidate in English

Black Folx, Black Feelings: Erotic Ethnography and Communal Liberation in Baltimore
 

Chantrelle’s  project grows out of her dissertation—examining Black queer femme erotics as a “site of world-making, survival and communal care”—and facilitation of the Black Folx Book Club, a monthly gathering that centers Black queer and trans authors while fostering joy, intimacy and collective reflection at Greedy Reads, an independent bookstore. Rooted in Black feminist theory and queer of color critique, the project explores how Black queer communities in Baltimore cultivate spaces of erotic world-making, care and liberation. Chantrelle plans to organize a public community dialogue in Baltimore that emerges from conversations within the book club. 
 

Rashi Maheshwari, doctoral student in comparative literature

Climate Chronicles: Writing Resistance, Righting Wrongs
 

Maheshwari’s  project seeks to shift the conversation around climate change from one focused on jargon and numbers—such as rising temperatures, shrinking ice caps, policy goals and carbon parts per million—to “narrative ways of knowing.” Through novels, oral histories, poetry, comics, podcasts and visual art, the project invites people to explore how storytelling serves as both a site of learning and a form of resistance. By bringing together writers, artists and activists, she aims to showcase how storytelling can challenge dominant narratives, inspire environmental engagement and create new possibilities for climate action.